


You Had The Power To Know How

by Arabwel



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, Eichen | Echo House, Established Relationship, Future Threesome, Hale Family Feels, Healing, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Psychological Trauma, Recovery, incestuous overtones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-15
Updated: 2015-01-15
Packaged: 2018-03-07 16:35:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3177188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arabwel/pseuds/Arabwel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On Peter's birthday, Scott and Derek go to visit him in Eichen House only to discover that they've been mistaken about just what has come to pass behind its walls.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Had The Power To Know How

**Author's Note:**

> My contribution to Scerek+! 
> 
> Thank you so much to the lovelies at Root Cellar for their help and support in getting this written <3
> 
> I may end up writing more in this 'verse 
> 
> Title from Opheliac by Emilie Autumn

When Scott comes in, he finds Derek staring out of the window, a pensive hunch to his shoulders. Silently, he walks across the room, knowing Derek would still be aware of his approach. 

“Hey, what’s up?” he asks softly, touching Derek’s arm.

Derek turns to him, eyebrows drawn tight over his eyes. “It’s Peter’s birthday tomorrow. He’s forty-two. He... used to always say he was looking forward to till he’d be the meaning to life, universe and everything.”

Scott doesn’t really get the reference, but he laughs because it fits. “That sounds like Peter.”

Derek doesn’t answer, just looks away and Scott feels a bit like an ass. Despite everything, Peter is still family. With Cora gone back to Brazil, having sworn to never set a foot in Beacon Hills again, and Malia off to college on the other side of the country, he knew Derek felt… well he hoped lonely was not the word, but estranged.

“You know,” Scott said slowly when an idea started to form. “We could go visit him. I know Deaton is out of town but I think Dr. Fenris remembers me and would let us go over. Maybe bring him a cake or something.”

He knows Derek feels guilty about it, about the fact that they have relied only on updates from Dr. Deaton ever since Peter was sent into the secret wing of Eichen House. But, Deaton had told them that it would be for the better, that seeing them could agitate Peter, make him worse.

After what happened with Stiles, Scott still feels uncomfortable about the idea of sending anyone to Eichen House, but he trusts Dr. Deaton. Peter working with Kate had been the last straw - if he could work with someone who had... done what Kate did, then he wasn’t okay. 

Derek smiles, then, and Scott’s decision is made.

****

Fenris is surprised that they want to see Peter, but agreeable. He remarks that it is usually Deaton, but what the Alpha of Beacon Hills wants, the Alpha of Beacon Hills gets.

The descent into the ward is unnerving; there are doors and checkpoints, orderlies in white who glare at the two of them like they should be the ones locked up. It makes Derek visibly uncomfortable, but on Derek that just makes him look angry.

It doesn’t mean Scott doesn’t reach out to touch him, to make sure Derek knows he’s right here with him.

“Okay, he’s behind these doors here. Glass cell at the end of the section, left hand side. I will not be coming further in as you requested, ah, familial time. We have transferred him out of his regular room for the time being.”

There is something ominous about the way Fenris says familial, like he’d been aiming for another word. It makes Scott feel uneasy when he thanks the man, can feel the tension when he takes Derek by the elbow and they head into the final stretch to where Peter is held.

It reminds him of Silence of the Lambs and how Stiles is bugging him to watch that new show on NBC that has that guy who played the villain in Casino Royale. He pushes the thought aside and draws a deep breath when the door clangs shut behind them.

Besides him, Derek stills.

“You okay?”

Derek shakes his head. “Let’s just… go ahead.”

At the end of the hall, there is a glass walled cell where a man wearing a ratty bandanna around his head is laying down on a single cot with a book. He looks up, and Scott feels his hackles rise. Whoever that guy is - maybe Peter’s roommate? - They’re not here for him. They're here for Peter, who’s just around the corner -

“So this is the conjugal visit Fenris was all in a state for.” A British voice calls out from the cell, a lazy, arrogant drawl.

Beside him, Derek growls and Scott tightens his grip on Derek’s elbow. “Ignore him, he murmurs, looking away from the guy, “We’re here for Peter.”  
“Didn’t think the true alpha would want sloppy seconds, but each to their own. Or is it the nephew who wants it?”

The words echo in the empty corridor and Scott pushes them away, the sheer wrongness in the glib tone enough to make his wolf surge forward, the primal urge to drive the obnoxious challenger away rising. But Scott tamps it down He’s not here to talk to some poor guy who’s messed up enough to be locked in here.

He’s here for Derek.

Derek who looks uneasy, the tightness in his shoulders and face reminding Scott of the time he first met the wolf, back when everything had changed. The little box with the cupcake in it - red velvet, Peter’s favorite - perilously close to being crushed in his hand.

They turn and then Peter is right there, behind a glass wall as promised.

The sight of him makes Scott gasp and besides him, Derek can’t help it - the cake is crushed when his claws come out, when he shifts because what’s before their eyes is -

Peter is huddling in the corner of the cell - it’s not a room, it’s a cell. He’s only wearing frayed pajama pants; his once-broad shoulders covered in clammy sweat and barely healed cuts, the curve of his ribs visible as he curls into himself, rocking back and forth. His feet are bare, the nails chipped and he won’t look at them.

It’s obscene in all the worst kind of ways.

Scott stares at Peter; at the fact that there’s a narrow bed in the room but nothing else - hears the other guy’s words - and it makes him sick. He kinda really wants to throw up but he can’t. Not when _this_ is happening.

Derek takes a step forward, pushing at the glass wall. It slides aside but Peter takes no note of them.

“Peter?” Derek’s voice is quiet, almost broken.

Peter doesn’t look up.

***

There is shouting. There is glaring. There is Doctor Fenris adamantly insisting they have done no wrong in “containing” Peter, that nothing has been done to him - that they are not responsible for what the man with the ragged bandanna - Dr. Valack - has done to Peter.

The fact that Fenris is confused - because isn’t Scott the one who wanted Peter here? - makes Scott feel sick to his stomach. Because he did: he believed Chris and Deaton when they said this was for the best. He’d thought they’d help Peter to get better. Not - this.

He wants Peter out of here.

In the end it all comes down to the fact that Scott is _the_ True Alpha, and Derek has a lot of money. He’s sure that if the push comes to shove he’d also have Chris and the Sheriff backing him up, but the fact that there actually is absolutely zero policy in place for actually releasing someone from Eichen house is in his favor.

While they’ve been arguing, Peter has been dosed with more wolfsbane. It’s not the rare yellow kind, but something else that’s mixed with chemicals and leaves a sour note on Peter’s skin, makes his eyes glassy when Derek scoops him up. Scott wishes they had a blanket to wrap him up in, but the threadbare, coarse sheets on the bed are best left behind.

Parrish is waiting with a prisoner transport van. The deputy’s face is grim, the fact that he thinks this is ill-advised is clear, but even he looks chagrined when he sees Peter.

Once they get Peter in, Scott takes off his hoodie and wraps it around Peter’s shoulders. This close, Peter looks even more frail and the roiling feeling is back in Scott’s stomach and this time there’s nothing stopping him from stumbling out and being sick.

They bring him to the loft without incident. Scott already called his mom, and she’s there waiting for them to look him over before they bundle him up in the panic/containment room. The fact that Derek won the building has led to some off the books renovations: this room designed to hold the supernatural either in or out a part of it.

“He’s lost a lot of weight and I don’t know what sort of a drug cocktail he’s on but otherwise, he appears to be physically okay.” Melissa frowns as she looks at Peter, lying curled up on his side on the cot, still out of it. “He’s likely to have withdrawal symptoms. I’ll prepare some banana bags for him.”

Scott can draw a line on an IV; so he nods. He might be more used to animals than people, but - _oh god what is he going to say to Deaton?_ \- He can handle Peter with help.

“Thank you.” Derek’s voice is low and breathless when he thanks her, hesitantly reaching out to take her hand. “I know he’s - it’s Peter.”

Melissa’s eyes are tired, but there’s a hint of understanding there. “He’s family.”

****

Peter wakes up screaming.

Scott wakes up too; beside him, Derek’s already out of bed, staring at the door to the panic room.

Scott is still the first one to make his way to Peter; he understands Derek’ hesitation, his wariness, but he put Peter down once, when Peter was in his prime. And now?

Now, he's got a lot of experience with wounded animals.

Peter’s screams have died down to a high-pitched keen. He’s huddled in the corner, the sheets from the cot on the floor, the IV drip and stand cast across the room.

Slowly, carefully, Scott makes his way over to Peter. With every step he takes, the more agitated Peter becomes, the keening noise breaking and hitching as the wolf tries to curl further into himself. Scott fights to keep his breathing even, his hands open and on his sides. It’s like approaching a feral animal.

“Peter?”

There’s no answer.

He doesn’t touch Peter, he just crouches close, keeps his hands in Peter’ sight, and keeps talking in a low, soothing voice. Tells him he’s sorry, that this is not what was supposed to happen. That it’s gonna be okay, that Valack will not get to him.

Derek doesn’t come in, but Scott can sense him at the doorway, watching them both.

It’s the first time Peter wakes up screaming but not the last. Most of the time he just lies there, barely responsive. Scott isn’t sure if he’s awake or not, if this is like the catatonia he suffered after the fire, or worse.

Lydia takes one look at him and says she can’t do anything. The look of pity on her face makes Scott’s heart hurt, because it’s _Lydia_. If anyone has the right to spit on Peter’s grave, it’s her, but even _she_ feels sorry for the state Peter is in.

Just as Peter slowly starts to get better, starts to _look_ at Scott and not shy his eyes away, goes silent instead of making instinctual, animalistic noises and slowly gearing towards using his words, Derek is becoming more used to Peter’s presence.

Scott knows Derek feels guilty.

“You know it’s not your fault.”

“I know but - “

“If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine.” Scott’s voice is grave. “I’m the one who made the decision. I*m the one who thought he’d get better, that they’d help him in Eichen House.”

“He’s _my_ uncle, Scott. He’s my responsibility.”

“And I’m the Alpha.”

It’s a stupid argument and it leaves them both drained. But they get over it, they always do, they don’t go to bed angry and late in the night Scott whispers his apologies into Derek’s skin as they hold each other close.

***

Scott wakes up to Derek swearing.

He blinks, his full of grit and an unfamiliar weight settled half onto him, and the scent that fills his nostrils when he inhales -

“How did he get out?”

Scott has _no idea_ how Peter’s gotten out of the containment room. It’s supposed to be werewolf proof, zombie proof, Stiles wanted to make it fully apocalypse proof but wouldn’t because in case of apocalypse the plan was to hit the CostCo on fifth and main and hole up there.

Peter makes a noise and burrows his face into Derek’s furry stomach, his still too thin arms reaching out to clutch at Scott and Derek both. But the sound is not the raw, hurt kind, but rather reminds Scott of a lazy, obnoxious cat more than anything.

“I dunno,” he says and sits up carefully, reaching out to touch Peter. The smart thing to do would probably be to pull peter away from Derek, take him back into the other room, figure out how he got out and make sure he couldn’t do it again but... 

“It’s too early to get up. Come on, Peter, scoot up so I can get the blanket over us.”

Scott grins when Peter obeys and Derek’s confused, hesitant hope turns into a full smile.

It’s gonna be okay.


End file.
